When it comes to online marketing, many people think of the practice as an oasis in the world of marketing to avoid having to actually sell. Since Seth Godin popularized the term of “permission marketing” there are all these ideas about selling without selling, soft-selling, or just hoping to be “good enough” in a way that makes potential customers put 2 and 2 together and make their own decision to buy.
But this is all just wishful thinking by people who want to avoid what they perceive to be the painful experience of trying to sell.
Many people go to online forums to find make-money “gimmicks” that are less than reputable because they’re trying to avoid the necessary money-making act of selling to another person.
But here’s the reality of the situation: you can’t live behind a bubble, or a computer screen.
The problem is, that most people don’t like selling at all or they distrust salesman or think that selling is somehow unethical.
As long as you have a very compelling and ethical “Why” then you should not fear selling or feel guilty about it. If you’re coming from an ethical perspective with integrity, and helping people get results on a consistent basis so that they can improve their lives, then sales is the only missing ingredient.
‘Sales’ is everything in life. There are many great products in the graveyards that could have helped lots of people but lacked the salesmanship to move them.
So let’s talk about a voodoo NLP persuasion technique that will instantly make you more a persuasive salesman and bump you into a higher bracket:
Persuasion Technique – a powerful technique that comes to us via NLP hypnosis is called “Future Pacing.” Through future pacing, you reach in and change the thoughts and behaviors of another person by causing them to visualize a future scenario.
First, you start by taking the strongest aspect(s) of your product and using it as an indicator of future success.
What you’re doing is anchoring your product to future success by embedding a belief through visualization.
When employing the technique of “future pacing” your aim is to anchor your product and its features to success in such a way that the two become interlinked; and you’re anchoring another decision, or a non-decision to failure.
So next, you would create a powerful visualization of failure and “link” that to another option or a non-decision not to buy today.
One way to do this would be to say something to this effect:
“You can get my widget now, and finally get this problem handled once for all. Or you can do nothing. But then you’ll probably wake up a year from now, and still be in the exact same place… without the successful outcome that you’re seeking.”
Now that’s a very simple example.
But it illustrates the point: you’re creating a future image within the prospect’s mind of the success that will come once they enlist your services or purchase your product. And you’re creating a negative or neutral image of what would happen if they choose something else or decide to nothing.
Think of a train that’s leaving for the promised land. Jump on now, or get left behind. That’s the mindset you want your prospect to have.
People want to eliminate pain, and move toward pleasure, but it’s not cut and dry… You want people to know what the risk is if they DON’T take action.
Get it?
You can list statistics and figures, and cite examples, but if those don’t work, then you need to create emotional motivators to energize people to act and to buy.
At the same time you pepper them with pain by reminding what will happen if they don’t take action, and you run that loop again and again. And what you see is that people start to buy.
We are fear based creatures, and we’re prone to making snap decisions (it’s how we survive.)
Good luck using this technique, and remember: use this, like any sales technique, only in an ethical manner. Remember, the goal of sales is to sell only ethical products that help people, and profits are a secondary priority.
Danny Flood is the co-founder of LavaLink, and the brainchild behind this website. He has been an online marketing consultant for hundreds of small businesses and entrepreneurs, and is a frequent speaker on wordpress design and web marketing topics.
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